Stories about James

Jeff M.:

James was a legendary human being and one of my closest friends, I feel sorry for anyone who didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him. When I first moved to Florida, I was pursuing a degree in audio production at Full Sail and shortly thereafter met James. James told me over and over how I should be doing lighting and not audio because “audio is lame, and lighting is real art” (he’s not wrong) and I actually changed my degree from audio production to show production and leaned into lighting thanks to James. He kept telling me you have to come to my place and check it out I have lights everywhere, and one day after class (I believe audiotronics) I followed him over there and as he opened his front door I saw something I will never forget. A thick plume of fog rolled out the door and I could see lasers shooting everywhere and moving lights shining everywhere, projectors mapping surfaces all over the place and music going. James LOVED production, he was always immersed in something creative, and had a hunger to teach people the way. He taught me so much about lighting and inspired me to really dig into production and lighting design. James and I were inseparable in college and would hang out almost everyday and catch rides from each other to class everyday, if there was a group project we were always doing it together, and hanging out outside of class. After we graduated he moved back to Houston to work with LD systems and I moved to Nashville to work with another company but we still kept in touch. Anytime I would come through Houston, James would come hang out at the show at FOH with me and we would hang out and reminisce on old times in school and catch up on the latest and greatest in our lives currently. James loved worked at LD but wanted to tour, and honestly he was such a talented LD, the world had to see it, and he had to see the world. I kept trying to convince James that if he wanted to tour Nashville was the spot and eventually I got a call about an artist (Savoy) looking for an LD and I hit up James and told him about it and he said alright I’m down let’s do it. Within a few weeks James drove to Nashville and basically parked his car at my house, jumped on a bus and left for tour. When we got back he lived with my Alita and I for about a year until he got a place in town. At the time my friend Christian Hall and James and I were running a lighting shop out of my basement, and set up massive rigs in there for tour preps and had mannnny late nights down there programming and trying to figure out how to make things better, and cooler, and push the boundaries of what we could do. I will always cherish those days, some great times were had there. Over the years James and I have probably worked on hundreds of shows together. Anytime I was lucky enough to be able to have James on a show or shoot with me I knew it was going to be a good day. No matter how difficult or tough the situation was James had a smile on his face and a plan to make it suck a little less. James was like a brother to me and the loss of him will never be okay, he was an incredible person and I feel incredibly blessed to have had the honor of calling him a close friend and brother. The world’s stage got a little dimmer the day James left, he was a bright light and had a smile that could light up any room. To the Poole family, I am terribly sorry for your loss, I love James he will always be on my mind and in my heart, as will you all. James was lucky to have such an incredible family, and you all raised an incredible man. I’m absolutely devastated and devastated for you, my condolences. We will definitely stay in touch, please reach out if you ever just want to talk about James, I would love to.

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